Equal Ice

I’m a performer, but I don’t act on a regular stage.
I dress up in costumes, but I don’t play a character.
My stage isn’t one in a theater; it’s clean slick ice at a rink.
I don’t play a character, I’m just myself.
Sometimes on the ice though, I feel like I’m someone else. Someone who is graceful and beautiful, it’s still me though, just a different side of me. A side that I like much more than my everyday self.
Ice skating is much more work than people may think though, and some people don’t consider it a sport. It’s not as extreme as hockey for example.
I may not look very tough, but I can accelerate faster than the guys on the racetrack.
I take harder impacts than a rider being thrown from a bull.
And I handle more G-Force than a fighter pilot.
So why just be extreme, when you can be extremely graceful.

86. Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Harry’s POV

When practice was over, I was the first one out of the rink. I wanted to get in and get out of the locker room as quick as I could. I wasn’t going to go to the buffet today so I didn’t have to worry about changing.

I just needed to get my hockey skates off and get my bag from the locker room and then I was going to get the hell away from these people. I was walking as fast as I could in my hockey skates to get to the locker room before everyone else.

When I finally did make it to the locker room, I headed over to where I had set my stuff and sat down on the bench and began to untie my skates as fast as I could. It was only a matter of moments after I had gotten into the locker room that I heard the door opening and the rest of the guys came into the locker room.

“Look who’s already in here,” Zack said as he walked in, “The one who is usually the last one in here is the first in today.”

Everyone laughed at what he said as they all went to their usually spots on the benches, and some only stayed for a second before they headed off to the showers.

“Eager to leave and get back to your girlfriend? I guess we have an explanation now to why you’ve skipped going to the buffet so many times,” Adam added on to what Zack had said, earning a laugh from him and the rest of the guys in the room.

Hearing Adam insult me got on my nerves more then Zack’s stupid comments did. I expected some heckling from Zack, but I had kind of hoped that Adam would stick up for me.

Okay so wishing he’d stick up for me was a bit far fetched in this situation, but I had been hoping that he would at least keep his mouth shut. I never really saw him as someone who was like Zack and had no problem with saying things that might hurt other people.

I just ignored them both anyway, and just continued on taking my skates off as fast as I could.

Zack and Adam continued to make little stupid comments every now and then, and some of the other guys joined in on a few.

When they found out, I was hoping that if they were going to be mad at me that they would just ignore me and give me the not subtle glare every now and then. This was much worse though, not only were they mad at me, they were teasing and taunting me and making sure that I knew that they weren’t okay with this.

I finally got both of my skates off and put them both away in my bag.

“Tell Gabrielle I said hi,” Zack joked as I had gotten up from the bench and had begun to walk out.

I wanted to say something back to him, God did I want to say something back to him, but I couldn’t think of a good comeback off the top of my head right now. So instead I just ignored him and walked out of the locker room.

As I was walking across the lobby, I heard someone say my name. My first instinct was to think that word had already gotten around about Gabrielle and I and it was someone wanting to tell me what they thought about our relationship, thinking that I actually cared about what they thought. I turned around to see that it was coach who had called my name.

Once I saw that it was him, I rolled my eyes and turned back around to continue walking. I didn’t get why he had been trying to talk to Gabrielle and I ever since he told the whole hockey team about us. He couldn’t possibly feel bad about what he did, he knew that this wasn’t going to turn out well for Gabrielle and I. Especially since the hockey team were the first people that he told, he knew that they were going to be pissed.

“Heading off to the buffet already?” I heard him ask me as he walked over to me.

“What is your problem?” I said to him, not wanting an answer as I then walked away from him and out of the building.

The man acted like he did nothing wrong and I didn’t understand it.

My first guess was that he had a slight hope that if he just acted nice and all to me now that everything would be okay between us. Two things then came to mind, the first was that maybe he was worried that I was going to quiet the team, which I’ve considered but I’m not going to do since my want of playing hockey and going to the Olympics was bigger than some stupid gossip that was going to be spread about me.

The other thing was that maybe he hadn’t taken into consideration before that I was going to tell my aunt that he told about Gabrielle and I after she had asked him not to do that. He’d have to do a lot more than just pretend to be nice to me to get me to not tell my aunt.

Plus I wasn’t even sure if she was going to be mad at him or not. She might be a bit angry with him for telling, but since she’s been alone for so long and they both seem to get along well together, she wasn’t going to breakup with him if that is what he was worried about.

I finally walked out of this building, something I wanted to do since the minute I walked into the locker room. I couldn’t believe that I had come here today being almost positive that nothing different was going to happen and that everything would just go back to being like the way it was before at the rink.

Of course it wasn’t though, coach had to be a jerk and tell the hockey team, and I was beyond pissed at him and everyone else who gave me a hard time about it all right now. I made my way to my car that was parked at the back of the lot, more and more anger fueling through me with every step I took. I was finally at the place where I parked my car, and I got my keys out to unlock it.

When I got into my car, I threw my hockey bag onto the passenger seat next to me, and then began to back out of my spot.

I was having trouble focusing as I was driving back to my aunt’s house. I almost ran through every red light that I hit, I think I might’ve driven straight through a couple of them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a ticket come in the mail soon for doing so.

I tried turning the radio on to get my mind of things, but of course, that didn’t work. Instead I was listening to lyrics of the songs to closely and somehow relating every single on to what was going on right now, I don’t know how I managed to do it, but I did. It was just making me even less focused on the road now, so I had eventually turned it off, keeping the car silent as I drove.